Okay, so we all had our hearts broken a bit during THAT SCENE.
But if you look closely it is even more heartbreaking than you thought.
So the show has established that the robots talk with both ultrasonic sound and their face lights and communicate a lot with body posture.
We the audience only have two light "words" spelled out for us, that is "Engine" the ellipse shape,
and "home/family/safe" the broad figure eight that Penny recognizes as a smile.
Which we ses versions of first above when John Robinson first starts to show kindness and welcome to Robot over the card game.
And a smaller but more intense version here
When John just rescued Robot from Hastings's brain zapper when John was the only Robinson to thought to actually speak directly to Robot.
So we see this figure eight image twice, both times when John is actively caring for Robot. Either reassuring him or outright saving him.
Way back in 2019 after season 1 dropped I hypothesized that we could figure out the phrase for "I'll keep you safe/I'll protect you/I won't let anyone hurt you"
A single broad, white swath of a spiral starting in the center of the robot's face and filling the entire face with the spiral. I was surfing tumblr for Robot Robinson pictures, as you do, and I found these two gif sets
In the first one John is setting up the fence and Will protests saying that they have Robot to protect them and don't need the fence. John points out that they can't be sure of that. Robot turns his attention from Will long enough to flash this distinctive spiral at John.
In context Robot could have been saying. "No, the kid's right. I'll protect them." At the very least he might have been saying. "I won't let anything else hurt you."
https://authorbettyadams.tumblr.com/post/618697543203831808
But the scene that gave me this idea was the one just after Robot seals the breach on Will's suit. Will makes the comment to the effect that he knew Robot was still there and Robot makes this face and then gives the 'Friends' line before kicking SAR off the ship.
https://authorbettyadams.tumblr.com/post/618695359434309632/ahsokatonas-lost-in-space-2018
In the first instance, when Robot seems to be promising to protect the whole family there is also a starburst in the upper left corner of his face.
Then we see this identical spiral with the starburst again when Robot has to bust through the Jupiter door and sees Maureen ready to whack him one on the other side.
This context really supports the idea that this starburst/spiral means, "You don't need to worry, I will keep the family safe."
So immediately after reassuring everyone that he has this protection thing down, Robot...well doesn't, and instead of trying to comfort him John lashed out at him, and we get this image...
I tried to capture a better image of it but it was hard. It was like the starburst/spiral was trying to from but couldn't. As if Robot was admitting he failed to protect Will, or was trying to tell John that he wasn't going to retailate if John wanted to keep punching him. But the image is fragmented, broken, almost as if a human was trying to speak clearly while crying.
And then Robots face changes to this image....
This is much more clearly an attempt at the broad figure eight that means "smile/safety/home/family" The one Robot saves for John, only this time it is broken in two places. Robot has let Will all but die, and John is rejecting him.
And the timing is very, very telling, the broken, "I will keep you safe" turns to the "safety/home/family" word, but as it does Robot turns his head so John can't, or doesn't have to see it, as if Robot is so ashamed and guilty that he won't even claim the safety, the affection, the home that John has represented to him up to this point.
Or, perhaps, even more heartbreakingly, Robot is shown to be very emotionally childlike, this is Robot asking if he is being cast out of the family, but not being able to ask the question directly...
Aaahhhhhhhhhh!
I want so badly to know this entire story from Robot's perspective!
